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LARA editor to chair at World Low Cost Airlines Congress next week

Posted on: 21 February 2018

Mark Thomas, editor of the LARA media portfolio, will chair the Routes and Regions session at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress in Singapore next week.

The Congress, part of Terrapinn’s Aviation Festival Asia event, is scheduled to take place on 27-28 February 2018 at Singapore’s Suntec Convention Centre. The Routes and Regions session, highlighted by event organisers as the most popular track of the entire show, will explore strategies for growth and new business development in Asian markets, focussing on Japan, South Korea and south-east Asia.

Now in its 14th year, the World Low Cost Airlines Congress continues to attract the C-Level executives of low cost carriers from across the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. Visitors come together to discuss the latest strategies for developing new routes, finding new customers and exploring new sources of revenue. In 2018, the Congress is expected to attract an audience of up to 800 airline executives.

As editor of the market-leading publication covering low-fare and regional aviation, Mark is ideally situated to provide an informed, impartial overview of proceedings. The event will be Mark Thomas’ first chairperson role since joining LARA in February 2017, but he previously amassed a wealth of events experience in the oil and gas industry, representing leading energy publisher Hart Energy.

I’m really looking forward to the honour of returning to Singapore to chair one of the Aviation Festival’s highest-profile sessions, ‘Routes and Regions’, part of the respected World Low Cost Airlines Congress. The panel sessions are all rightly focused on the growth and opportunities that are prevalent throughout the region, but at the same time there are many challenges that remain in such an intensively competitive market. Can it be sustainable, where will airlines target new growth and what is the role of airports in facilitating more traffic? Co-operation will be the key in some areas, but not all, as some participants see more costs than benefits to such arrangements.

Mark Thomas, LARA editor

Routes and Regions schedule – Wednesday 28 February 2018

14:00 Panel: South-East Asia outlook: How to reaccelerate the network growth
14:40 Traffic growth strategies for Japanese LCCs: A case study of Vanilla Air
15:00 South Korea market: Creating viable business strategies in a crowded and competitive market
15:20 Panel: Northeast Asia outlook: How to thrive in an increasingly complex, competitive and interconnected market